Brown

SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE:

Aaron Brown added a silver medal to his Olympic Games medal collection at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with the 4x100m relay team. He also advanced to his first individual Olympic final in Tokyo and finished 6th in the 200m. He became a World Champion at the 2022 World Championships when the 4x100m relay team of Andre De Grasse, Jerome Blake, and Brendon Rodney won gold and set a new Canadian record with their time of 37.48. He also finished 7th in the 200m final.

At every competitive level, two-time Olympian Aaron Brown has delivered quality and versatility as a 100- and 200-metre sprinter and 4x100-metre relay runner.

Building on stellar performances as a junior-age athlete in 2010 and 2011, Brown capped a four-year NCAA career at the University of Southern California with a breakout season in 2014.

That was the year the Toronto native broke Atlee Mahorn’s 23-year Canadian 200-metre record of 20.17 seconds in late May (20.16) and again in early June, when he ran 20.02 seconds, winning silver at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore. At that same NCAA meet, Brown finished third in the 100 metres in 10.07 seconds. At 22, Brown had established his elite bona fides in dazzling fashion.

He had already shown his talent at the international level, helping Canada win a bronze medal in the 4x100-metre relay at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow, an achievement he and his relay mates repeated at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.

At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Brown missed qualifying for the 200-metre final by 0.05 seconds.

It has been said of Brown that he was Canada’s breakout sprinting star before Andre De Grasse, who also honed his talent at USC, had his breakout season in 2015, surpassing his older countryman.

The duo gives Canada enviable depth of high-end talent in the sprint events. Brown underscored that fact in June 2016, when he ran a 9.96-second 100-metres at a meet in Baton Rouge, La., becoming just the fourth Canadian man ever to run a sub-10 second 100-metre race.

Brown and De Grasse were key parts of Canada’s 4x100-metre relay team that won bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They might have bettered that effort at the 2017 World Championships in London, but a hamstring injury kept De Grasse out of that competition.

Bad luck bedeviled Brown in 2017. He was disqualified for a false start in the 100-metre heats at the Canadian Track & Field Championships. In London, Brown ran a season’s best 20.08 seconds in the 200-metres, seemingly winning his heat. Unfortunately, he was disqualified for a lane violation. He did compete for Canada in the men’s 4x100-metre relay at the 2017 World Championships, where Canada finished sixth in the final.

Brown’s 2018 season got off to a hot start with a silver medal in the 200 metres at the Commonwealth Games. He followed that up with gold, silver and bronze medals at three consecutive Diamond League meets, setting a new 200-metre personal best of 19.98 seconds in the process (Oslo Bislett Games). In doing so, Brown became just the third Canadian to break the 20-second mark and joined Andre De Grasse as the only Canadians to both run under 10 seconds in the 100 metres and under 20 seconds in the 200 metres.

Brown continued his strong season with double gold medals in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprints at the Canadian Track & Field Championships. He then capped his 2018 season off with a 200-metre silver medal at the NACAC Championships and a gold in the 4x100-metre relay.

The Toronto native came out of the gate with all cylinders firing in 2019, landing on the podium in Doha in the first Diamond League event of the season (200 metres), and then followed up that performance with a Diamond League win in Shanghai. On July 5, Brown lowered his personal best in the 200 metres to 19.95 seconds in Lausanne, crossing the finish line fourth in the most competitive Diamond League race of the season. Brown went on to defend both his 100-metre and 200-metre titles at the Canadian Track & Field Championships in Montreal before capping his season competing in those events, plus the 4x100-metre relay at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

After a truncated 2020 season, Brown has come out strong in 2021. He earned back-to-back 200-metre bronze medals at the 60th Ostrava Golden Spike and Doha Diamond League race, respectively. He successfully defended his Canadian 100 metre and 200 metre titles at the 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Trials in Montreal in June, and earned silver in the 200 metres at the Diamond League meet in Oslo on Canada Day.